Findon Village Antiquities - In Her Father's Footsteps

This website, www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

Guendolen Blanche Douglas, age 21, four years before her untimely death.

IN HER FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS

Guendolen Blanche Douglas 1877-1903

Guendolen Douglas was the first daughter born to Christiana and Edwin Douglas — the artist who lived at Fox Down in Findon.

Edwin Douglas (1848-1914), with donkey and trap outside Fox Down in Findon It is likely that Guedolen's mother, Christiana, is in the driving seat.

The view down to Findon Village from Fox Down, virtually the same as it would have been in Gudenolen's days.

Guendolen Douglas at Fox Down.

Guendolen was born on Monday 15th October 1877 and was the only Douglas child who appeared to have inherited Edwin's talent and, if she had lived, may have gone on to be a great artist like her father.

I would go as far as to say that this is the very first time this Findon girl's versatile work has been shown anywhere —

This watercolour has on the reverse in Guendolen's hand "A sketch in Bruges by Guendolen Blanche Douglas"

This sketch bears the signature of Guendolen Douglas and the date 1895. The title is as follows: "Hackney Stallion M.P. for Sussex 5,336. The property of Miss E. L. Schroeter, Pony Farm, Findon, Sussex. Winner of numerous prizes in 1895, and of champion medal presented by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., for best Hackney stallion at Leigh Park, Havent".

Guendolen appears to have been more than just a little interested in genealogy as she performed a collection of likenesses of her ancestors on her mother's side of the family —

Guendolen's silhouette of her Great Great Great Grandfather, the Reverend Charles Stuart, Rector of Ashen in Essex. He was born in Sussex on 21st February 1719.

Guendolen's silhouette of her Great Great Grandfather, Charles Cox Stuart. He was born on 23rd August 1763.

Sketch by Guendolen (when she was nineteen years old), of her Great Grandmother, Mary Stuart, born in 1794. This was taken from a portrait in the possession of the Douglas family.

A sketch by Guendolen Douglas (when she was eighteen) of her grandfather, Philip Stuart Martin. He was born on 27th December 1815 and Guendolen took her sketch from a portrait painted of him at the age of two. He later assumed the additional surname and arms of Feake. Philip became Master of the East Essex Foxhounds, Lord of the Manor of Henham and a Justice of the Peace for the county of Essex.

Sadly, Guendolen died in Bournemouth just prior to her twenty-sixth birthday on Friday 2nd October 1903. She was recuperating from tuberculosis. The Morning Post dated Sunday 4th October 1903 ran the following announcement of her death —

DOUGLAS On October 2nd, at Bournemouth, Guendolen Blanche, dearly-beloved eldest daughter of Edwin Douglas, of Fox Down, Findon Sussex, aged twenty-five.

Continue if you would like to read Edwin Douglas Arrives in Findon.

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This is Findon — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com